Northern bettong

Bettongia tropica

Blamed on cats

IUCN status: Endangered

EPBC Predator Threat Rating: High/Very High

IUCN claim: “The main threats tot his species are: Predation by feral cats (moderate to severe): feral Cats shown to be a significant predator of the closely-related Woylie in south-western Australia”

Studies in support

No studies

Studies not in support

No studies

Is the threat claim evidence-based?

There are no studies linking northern bettongs to cats.

Evidence linking Bettongia tropica to cats. Systematic review of evidence for an association between Bettongia tropica and cats. Positive studies are in support of the hypothesis that cats contribute to the decline of Bettongia tropica, negative studies are not in support. Predation studies include studies documenting hunting or scavenging; baiting studies are associations between poison baiting and threatened mammal abundance where information on predator abundance is not provided; population studies are associations between threatened mammal and predator abundance.

References

Current submission (2023) Scant evidence that introduced predators cause extinctions. Conservation Biology

Doherty, T.S., Davis, R.A., van Etten, E.J., Algar, D., Collier, N., Dickman, C.R., Edwards, G., Masters, P., Palmer, R. and Robinson, S., 2015. A continental‐scale analysis of feral cat diet in Australia. Journal of Biogeography, 42(5), pp.964-975.

EPBC. (2015) Threat Abatement Plan for Predation by Feral Cats. Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999, Department of Environment, Government of Australia. (Table A1).

IUCN Red List. https://www.iucnredlist.org/ Accessed June 2023